An overwhelming sense of agony surged through Cardin's ribs as Eve slammed him into the wall behind him as hard as she could. The reptilian Faunus leaning to the left to dodge the spray of blood Cardin coughed up.

"Crimson fell down the stairs today. Couldn't stand upright due to chest pains." She spat venomously.

Cardin tried not to blame her for what she was doing. During his time with Ozpin, he'd been able to look through her school file, hoping to find something that he could use to blackmail her into staying the hell away from him. What he found was 'a history of psychological problems and uncontrollable anger as a result of years of abuse'. She had, of course, been prescribed medicine so that she wouldn't be a danger to everyone around her. But ever since that mysterious fire swept through the medical wing on the night of the dance, she'd undoubtedly been forced to go cold turkey.

"And I am to blame for Crimson's injuries." Cardin thought sadly. So Cardin tried to take the punishment in stride, accepting that he was to blame and trying to forgive Eve for the injuries.

"Yes, and I'm sure the stairs are very sorry for what they did."

'Tried and trying' being the key words. It was hard to be forgiving and understanding when he was the one being punched in the face.

*CRUNCH*

"Speaking of getting punched in the face…"

"Shut your mouth you racist worm!" She screamed in his face.

"Uh Eve, I think he's had enough." Gary whispered quietly.

At the start of this routine, Gary had been happy to jump in on the action, beating Cardin into the ground in the name of justice. But as time went by and Eve became more and more violent, he started showing up for the sake of making sure Eve didn't kill him.

Of course, he didn't actually stop Eve, for fear of winding up on the receiving end himself.

"Shut up Gary!" she yelled before kicking Cardin's legs out from underneath him.

Cardin was gasping for breath at this point, the pain in his ribs having gotten so bad that he felt like he couldn't breathe. Well, either that or the blood in his throat was actually stopping him from breathing.

*CRACK*

Eve leaned her hands against the wall and delivered a brutal kick to Cardin's unprotected stomach.

"What I'd give to have my armour right now…"

*CRUNCH*

Another kick, harder this time. Eve didn't stop there however but kept kicking and kicking over and over and over again.

"Eve, you can stop now."

Eve didn't answer; she just kept kicking.

"Eve, you're going to kill him!"

Eve didn't hear him, she was too consumed by hatred to notice anything right now other than the feeling of her foot making contact with Cardin's torso.

"Eve!" Gary bellowed, forcefully pulling here away from the near catatonic ginger. The snake-faunus almost punched him in the face before the sound of footsteps echoed down the hall.

"Hello?"

The duo's eyes widened in fear. If they were seen anywhere near Cardin in this condition, they might as well leave the school and never return. They sprinted away as fast as their legs could carry him, Gary only pausing for a second to make sure that their victim hadn't bled out before leaving.

Cardin for his part spasmed and convulsed in pain, the waves of agony rippling through every fibre of his being for what felt like an eternity. To Cardin's relief, he felt a warm, soothing feeling wash over him. It was the most wonderful feeling, like soaking in a hot bath with sore muscles.

The ginger cracked his eyes open out of curiosity, but could only make out a vaguely female form resting her hands on his ribs. Using her Aura to heal him no doubt. He tried to rise, but his 'saviour' gently pushed him back down.

"Shh. You need to rest."

Cardin could've sworn he recognised the voice, but he was too sore to place it. Instead, he simply closed his eyes and drifted into unconsciousness.

Velvet looked over Cardin with fear in her eyes. Whoever did this to him was either extremely violent or didn't know their own strength. Even with all her skill, she might not be able to heal him.

"No! Don't think like that, just focus."

Healing or no, a lot of these injuries would need proper medical treatment. But whether or not he'd be able to make it there without her help was another question. So Velvet continued to channel her aura, treating his injuries as best she could.

"Okay, cuts are sealed."

With the immediate bleeding staunched, Velvet rolled the larger boy onto his side and started stroking his throat, trying to induce vomiting to clear his throat of blood. Luckily, she remembered to face him away from her. Unluckily, she still managed to get some of it on her fingers.

"Eww, gross!" she screamed internally, wiping the mixture of blood and vomit against the wall.

Now that she was sure he wouldn't choke to death, she draped Cardin's arm over her shoulder and began walking down the hall towards the medical ward. After all, despite all he'd put her through she couldn't in good conscience leave him to his own devices.

"Hang on Cardin, you'll get the help you need."

"I am the pen, the pen is me…" Ruby thought, trying to enter Zen mode and awaken her inner inelec-inteller-inetig…person who was really smart and passed tests and stuff.

"The pen is not a pen, it is an extension of myself…somehow."

Thanks to Cardin's trick, she'd managed to successfully disassemble and reassemble the gun in around 2 minutes, while everyone else had 'lost their ability to even' in the immortal words of Yang. Some gazed at her in astonishment, wondering if she was secretly the God of Smithing while others bitterly accused her of cheating under their breath. Ruby for her part was indifferent, as she was finally getting her mojo going.

"With this pen, I shall smite the terrible and evil beast know as the 'theory test' and shall be celebrated…"

She hadn't seen Cardin enter the room, which was somewhat disappointing. She wanted to thank him for essentially giving her the key to success on a silver platter for this test. Ah well, maybe later.

"The pen will fill my answer spaces with answers. The pen is love, the pen is life…"

And with that thought, she started writing. The test may have been daunting, but with the secret of inner peace on her side, Ruby was invincible. She was on fire, there might as well have been cartoony smoke coming out of her ears while she set the pen on fire with sheer friction.

Before the silver-eyed girl knew it, she was done. Ruby set the pen down religiously next to her paper, flattening her hands together and bowing as far as she could without slamming her forehead against the table.

"Thank you Pen-Sensei." She whispered reverently…

Only to hit the funny bone in her knee against the edge of her table as she stood up. Doubling over instantly, the fifteen year old clutched at the sensitive spot on her knee and tried to stifle a yelp, only to have it come out as less of a cry in pain and more of the sound a dying cat would make while fighting a beached whale, drawing numerous odd looks from the people at their work benches.

"Owowowowowow!"

"Are you quite alright Ms. Rose? The teacher asked, raising his eyebrows in amusement.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Satisfied with her response, the professor started walking off.

"Wait, Professor Asimov?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm done." The silver-eyed girl said shyly, worried that Asimov would think she was cheating. Asimov plucked the paper from Ruby's hands and flicked through the pages, unable to believe she'd finished so early.

"Already? Damn, and I thought I was being clever with this old rifle trick. Ah well, good job Ms. Rose. You can leave early."

Hardly a second had passed after Asimov finished the sentence before Ruby has rushed out of the room, leaving a trail of rose petals behind her.

"Oh yeah! Who da boss? Who da boss?"

"I'm the boss!" she yelled as she barged into her dorm room and began changing into her regular outfit in preparation for Combat Training with Glynda.

"And it's all thanks to Cardin. Who would'a thought?"

If someone had told Ruby that she'd owe it to Cardin that she'd pass the test, she'd probably would've looked at them funny and said 'but isn't he a jerk or something?' To say they were friends would be a little presumptuous, but who knows? Anyone who gave her strawberries couldn't be too bad.

"I should give him something. Do we have any strawberry cupcakes left?"

Making her way over to the mini-fridge Yang bought, she opened it up and sifted through the various sodas, fruits and canned tuna to find that there were indeed two cupcakes left.

"Perfect." She thought, grabbing both of them and leaving her dorm to take advantage of the time between classes.

"This is gonna be great, we can be strawberry buddies! We're gonna eat strawberries and talk about weapons and-oh, I ate both of them. Dang."

Suddenly in dire need of some cupcakes, Ruby started sprinting to the cafeteria, hoping that there might be some leftover desserts that survived breakfast.

"Actually, he wasn't in class. I wonder where he is?"

One day, while browsing through the Internet, Cardin stumbled on a that said something along the lines of 'the only antidote to mental suffering is physical pain'. As far as Cardin was concerned, that person could die a horrible, fire related death. With his every nerve in his body above the waist seemingly on fire, made worse by even the tiniest movements, Cardin had no choice but to lie perfectly still and retreat into his mind.

"Yep, great cure man, I feel so healed man."

"You've got a visitor, Mr. Winchester.

Cardin eased his neck off the pillow as slowly as he possibly could and made saw Ozpin standing at the door, his face a mask of serenity. The nurse quietly excused herself and the ginger slumped back down against the bed.

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I told ya I fell down the stairs."

"You'd have better luck telling me a wizard did it."

Both of them chuckled a little before Cardin started coughing and gasping in pain. Ozpin's eyes narrowed in concern while Cardin's breaths became short and ragged.

"This is the third time this month Cardin, you can't expect me to keep looking the other way."

"Damn, I was hoping yo-

"Cardin…who did this to you?"

Cardin stared out the window absentmindedly; nobody likes a snitch after all.

"Nurse? Would you like to inform Cardin of the extent of his injuries."

"Um, it was pretty bad…you had three cracked ribs and your heart was pressed up against your ribcage. It was swelling pretty badly and your blood pressure was through the roof. You…probably would've died if Ms. Scarlatina hadn't dropped you off."

"Wait…Velvet?"

"So are you going to tell me now that you realise how serious this is."

Unfortunately for the Headmaster, the question was in one ear and out the other, the question barely even registered in Cardin's mind. Ozpin waited for a response but gave up with a tired sigh.

"Keep me informed of his condition." The concerned headmaster said before walking out of the room, leaving Cardin alone with his thoughts.